Wednesday

Feb 14, 2018 at 8:00 AM

A Swampscott man has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to four years in state prison in connection with trafficking cocaine, Attorney General Maura Healey announced.

Gerson Ceballos-Rosario, 39, pleaded guilty in Essex Superior Court to trafficking more than 36 grams of cocaine, according to the attorney general. Following the plea, Judge Timothy Feeley sentenced him to four years to four years and a day in state prison.

Ceballos-Rosario was arrested in Lynn in March 2016, along with Melkis Pena, 54, also of Swampscott, and Jonathan Sosa, 31, of Lynn, in a joint operation involving Massachusetts State Police assigned to the attorney general's office, Massachusetts State Police Commonwealth Interstate Narcotics Reduction Enforcement Team (CINRET), U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Swampscott and Lynn Police Departments.

Pena and Sosa pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison in December 2017. Pena was sentenced to eight to 10 years in state prison for trafficking more than 100 grams of cocaine concurrent with five to six years in state prison for money laundering. Sosa was sentenced to five to seven years in state prison for trafficking more than 36 grams of cocaine and trafficking more than 36 grams of heroin.

In December 2014, authorities from the State Police CINRET began an investigation into an alleged drug trafficking operation on the North Shore that they believed was responsible for distributing heroin and cocaine to and within Massachusetts.

“During the course of the investigation, authorities seized a large bag containing $300,000 in cash after they observed Pena handing it over to a truck driver in a parking lot in Saugus,” reads a statement from the attorney general’s office. “Authorities arrested the three individuals after observing what they believed to be a drug transaction occurring in a car.”

During the arrest, the attorney general’s office said authorities seized approximately 10 kilograms of cocaine from the car linked to Pena. Authorities seized more than 630 grams of cocaine and about 300 grams of heroin after search warrants were executed on the car and an apartment linked to Sosa. Authorities also seized $15,000 in cash and supplies and materials known to be associated with drug packaging and distribution.

Assistant Attorney General Gina Kwon, deputy chief of the Enterprise, Major and Cyber Crimes Division, prosecuted the case.